Only the most vile of antisemites conflates Zionism with Judaism. Antisemites believe that Jews are fundamentally foreigners, regardless of where they are born or how they live. An antisemitic American believes that Jews have an intrinsic loyalty and connection to the state of Israel, and any criticism of that hard right government is an attack on Judaism itself. To antisemites, Jews cannot be true Americans. Their loyalty is always suspect. This is the logic of the Japanese internment camps in WW2.
This logic states that if relations between Israel and the US are good, that attacks on Zionism are to be fought as an attack on all Jewish Americans. But this logic also demands that if relations ever sour between Israel and the US, persecution of American Jews is fully justified, as Jews cannot be real Americans.
Most Zionist organizations strongly assert the unity between Judaism and Zionism. Consider the following polling from Jewish Majority, a Zionist organization, asserting that 70% of Jews believe that anti-Zionism is antisemitic by definition (and this making Jewish Voice for Peace an antisemitic organization) [1], 76% believe that anti-Israel protests on college campuses were antisemitic [1], 88% of leaders of Jewish organizations consider the campus protests antisemitic [2], and 80% of American Jews oppose suspension of arms shipments as a political tool [3].
The paradox is thus: is this polling accurate? Either these Zionist organizations are lying about their polling data, or a supermajority of Jews indeed have a strong loyalty to Israel. Which is it?
There’s something very wrong with that study design. Look at the actual questions they asked: https://img1.wsimg.com/blobby/go/2921c434-f7d7-43f4-ade6-3a5591444c85/downloads/83704423-9e76-43d7-a876-975f4a267df1/12-24 Interview Schedule.pdf?
Look on page 10.
- Anti-Zionist movements are antisemitic by definition: 70% say that describes their beliefs well or very well
- Anti-Zionist movements are not antisemitic by definition: 50% say that describes their beliefs well for very well.
Then items X3: 53% disagree with the statement that opposing Israeli government policy is antisemitic.
Or Item 42:
It is possible to be a strong supporter of Israel and also protest their attacks that lead to the harm or death of civilians in Lebanon or Gaza. 74% agree with this statement. In the next item 68% state that Israel will only be safe when a two-state solution has been established.
The sample that “The Jewish Majority” used was likely wildly unrepresentative of America’s overall Jewish population. This can be seen in their question on religious service attendance.
Only 20% of American Jews attend service monthly or more frequently. Meanwhile, the 37% of The Jewish Majority’s respondents attend service at least once a month. (Item 47.) This indicates that their sample severely over-represents highly religiously active members of the Jewish community. Their report doesn’t state how they recruited their sample, but it seems likely they did so through outreach at synagogues or other spaces that would select for the most religious and heavily practicing of American Jews.